Judgments of time intervals by young children.

22 preschool children were either trained (experimental group) or not trained (control group) to indicate a 15-sec. time interval by the method of production. The accuracy was significantly improved by brief training. The children were generally accurate whether attending to the stopwatch at the right or left ear or given sound- or light-filled intervals. Neither age nor sex differences were found. These results demonstrate the possibility of conducting research on time-estimation at an early age if the procedures are relatively short and of interest to the young child. Because most of the children were unable to count as a guide to their judgments, the inner neural clock theory is supported.